The Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde has not sounded this inspired in years.

In what can only be described as an unlikely collaboration, veteran rocker Hynde, 59, has teamed with 32-year-old Welsh singer/songwriter JP Jones on this album which focuses on a couple who fall in love but are ultimately doomed by their age difference.

Now where they came up with such an improbable theme is, um, tough to fathom, but it works brilliantly as the story is told with passion, lust, heartbreak and every other ingredient that makes for perfect rock ‘n’ roll.

In the opening song, “Perfect Lover,” Hynde sings: “I found my perfect lover but he's only half my age / He was learning how to stand when I was wearing my first wedding band / I found my perfect lover but I have to turn the page / But I want him in my kitchen and standing on my stage.”

Their voices are very well suited for each other, whether singing harmonies or straight duets as she tends to take the seductive soulful lines and he takes the roaring rock side, sounding occasionally reminiscent of Bruce Springsteen.

Check out the pounding “If You Let Me,” with its killer hook, or the counter melody that Jones offers to Hynde in “Meanwhile.” Linger awhile with Hynde’s showcase ballad “Misty Valleys” or the emotional “Courage,” which soars against the pair sharing the repeated refrain “They got it wrong when they said that we were done.”

Tracks to download: “If You Let Me,” “Perfect Lover”

Phil Collins, “Going Back” (Atlantic) 2 ½ stars.

For those who lived through the 1980s, Phil Collins may always be the ubiquitous one.

Time was, when you couldn’t turn on the radio, flip on the TV, go to the movies or pick up a magazine without seeing the singer/songwriter/drummer/actor, who was selling tons of albums on his own and with Genesis at the same time. He may have also been the only guy who did his career some serious harm in the name of charity, when he played both sides of the Atlantic on the same day for a global audience in 1985 as part of the Live Aid benefit.

It just got to be too much Phil.

He’s scaled it way back from those crazy days and his Motown/soul covers’ disc “Going Back,” is his first new studio album in eight years. He’s battled some health problems along the way (severe hearing loss in one ear and a nerve damage in his hands, which makes drumming difficult), but definitely sounds like he’s having a fine time playing alongside several member of Motown’s revered Funk Brothers, as well as other players, on this 18-song outing.

Musically, the results are a bit of a mixed bag. There are times when he nails the material, like the Temptations’ “Papa Was a Rolling Stone,” and “Girl (Why You Wanna Make Me Blue,” and also during a beautiful version of the nostalgic Gerry Goffin/Carole King title track. But there are other times when he can’t effectively muster the necessary soul or passion on the far too jaunty version of “(Love is Like a) Heatwave,” or the great Stevie Wonder song “Never Dreamed You’d Leave in Summer.”

Nice to have Collins back, here’s hoping he might buck the trend of so many veteran artists lately and come up with some fresh original material next time out.
Tracks to download: “Papa Was a Rolling Stone,” “Going Back.”